Plans To Combat State's Opioid Crisis Unveiled

With less than a month before the start of the regular session at the Capitol, new efforts are being made to combat the state's opioid addiction crisis. 

Those plans were unveiled at a recent meeting of Attorney General Mike Hunter's opioid commission and both will need a lot of support to work.

The first plan is a new tax. A draft of the bill would impose a 10 percent tax on the first sale of opioids in the state, meaning distributors of the drugs would feel the greatest impact.

That plan would need to garner support from both lawmakers and the governor, a tall order since the state still hasn't filled the multi-million dollar budget hole from last year. 

Money from that tax would go to the state addiction treatment programs. 

The other plan is already in place in most of the country. It's called a good Samaritan law.

That law has been proposed for the past two years and has failed both times over concerns about law and order. 

Oklahoma is currently suing some of the nations largest drug companies for misrepresenting the addictiveness of opioids.

The trial for that lawsuit is set for May 2019.